Archives

A Florida woman asked her dad to give her a ride to the bank for a job interview. When she got there, she allegedly robbed the place instead. The incident perhaps gives a new meaning to bank job. When the suspect came running out with $300 cash, her father, who was waiting for her in a black SUV, reportedly thought that she had received an advance on her first paycheck and was unaware that he was functioning as a getaway driver. The getaway was apparently recorded by a surveillance camera from a nearby business. Inside the Fort Lauderdale TD Brank branch last Thursday at about 4 p.m., the suspect who had donned a red wig, sunglasses, and a hat allegedly handed the teller a note that read “You have exactly one minute to give me all your $50 & $100 bills from both drawers or I will shoot you! No dye packs, no alarms follow these instructions and no one will get hurt, act normal,” the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. The suspect, identified by Florida news outlets as Chelsea Wilson, 24, was subsequently nabbed as a result of other alleged heists. “A wig-wearing woman also robbed a trio of Chase branches in Davie, Hollywood and Cooper City. According to the complaint, a citizen recognized Wilson as the woman from surveillance photographs of the robberies,” ABC affiliate Local 10 News explained. Strange #Crime News: Woman tricks dad into being getaway driver for bank robbery. Ah, Florida. You never disappoint. https://t.co/r4Sn9c0BtJ — J.J. Hensley (@JJHensleyauthor) October 18, 2016 FBI agents arrested her at her home in Hollywood, Florida, early Friday morning according to an FBI press release. She “admitted to robbing the TD Bank branch and the three other banks, saying she used the money to buy groceries, the FBI said,” Local 10 News added. “FBI agents found the getaway car, which was registered in her father’s name, at her house Thursday,” the Palm Beach Post noted. Wilson is apparently being held in the Broward County jail on a charge of bank robbery pending a federal court appearance tomorrow. A multi-agency investigation involving the Fort Lauderdale, Davie, and Hollywood police departments along with the FBI and the South Florida Violent Crime Task Force is ongoing. “When the woman returned to her father’s SUV with a large amount of cash, the father later told authorities he thought his daughter had gotten an advance payment at her new job, according to the report,” the Sun-Sentinel noted about the TD Bank robbery. The Mommyish website raised some questions about the scenario. “If that’s actually true, Wilson’s father must be the most gullible, naive father the world has ever seen. Who comes sprinting out of a job interview with a handful of cash? Even if that didn’t raise suspicions, it’s a little odd that he didn’t think it was weird that blonde Chelsea Wilson was wearing a red wig, hat, and sunglasses when she went into the bank. True, millennials tend to be a bit more casual with interview clothes than their parents, but wouldn’t he have asked, ‘Hey honey, why are you wearing a wig to a job interview?’” A 24-year-old named Chelsea Wilson from Hollywood, Florida asked her dad if he’d drive her to a job interview… https://t.co/me0eZmQf7y — Steve Sparks (@radiodjsteve) October 18, 2016 Elsewhere in Florida, a man allegedly robbed a Fidelity Bank in Bradenton earlier this month and then headed to a nearby gas station where he hitched a ride with a willing stranger there after asking several other customers for a lift, the Bradenton Herald reported. “According to witnesses, the suspect entered the bank and handed the teller a note demanding money. The suspect took an undisclosed amount of money and fled the bank. A weapon was implied but not seen, the sheriff’s office said. Separately, cops took a 45-year-old man with an extensive criminal history into custody this morning who is allegedly responsible for a string of bank robberies across Florida, including one TD Bank, Florida Today detailed. Tips via Facebook may have helped authorities locate the man at a Daytona Beach motel. According to the Sun Sentinel, bank robberies by woman increased substantially last year (25 percent), but men still commit more than 9 out of 10 of these kinds of cash crimes. [Featured Image by Mark Lennihan/AP Images]